1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a microscope system, and more particularly, to a microscope system comprising at least one optical beam hub unit for alternatively selecting one beam port out of a plurality of optical beam ports.
2. Description of Related Art
An optical microscope serves to illuminate and simultaneously view a sample by an optical arrangement. In the case of an epi-fluorescence set-up, viewing is achieved by at least partially utilizing the same optical arrangement as is used for illumination. Observation is accomplished either directly by the eye of the operator, or by a detector and a subsequent device for recording the measurement signals. The sample is illuminated either on its whole area and observation occurs by a two-dimensional sensor or the sample is illuminated only partially and the illuminated partial area of the sample is moved optically across the sample. In the latter case, the image then is composed of partial images, which have been sequentially recorded during the scanning action.
Besides their central optical element, the objective lens, microscopes usually comprise additional optical elements, such as tube-lenses, mirrors, beam splitters and filters. For example, for performing epi-fluorescence microscopy dichroic beam splitters are usually employed for unifying or separating the illumination beam and the measurement beam. Usually longpass filters are used for this purpose, which reflect the excitation light having shorter wavelengths, and which transmit the emitted light having longer wavelengths. Beam splitters are usually brought into the beam-path by the translational movement of a filter slider or by the rotational movement of a filter carousel. However, such sliders or carousels also may serve for placing other optical elements, such as lenses, mirrors etc., into the optical beam.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,392,796 relates to a changeover system for optical components, such as filters, reflectors, polarizers and lens systems of a microscope system. The changeover system is rotatable, and the elements carrying the optical components are designed such that each optical component may be fixed in its place in the changeover system in two distinct orientations, which differ by a rotation by 180 degrees.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,777,783 relates to a microscope system, wherein a beam splitter block consisting of the differently oriented beam splitters is linearly movable by a slider which allows to place one of the beam splitters into the central optical axis defined by an objective lens in order to deflect the image beam of the microscope system towards one of three image detectors, whereby each beam splitter serves as a beam multiplexer element for selecting one of the detectors. Similar microscope systems are also described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,685,776 and laid open Japanese patent application 08101346.